SolveYourProblem
Article Series:
Small Business Guide To Buying Items:
eBay Auctions
How
to Become an eBay “Sniper”
by Jeff Cohen
If you bid for a few things on eBay, the chances
are that sooner or later you’ll end up getting your bid beaten
at the very last second by a ‘sniper’. This can be a frustrating
experience, and while in theory sniping is against the rules
and you can report it to eBay, in practice they never do anything
about it.
The bad news is that there’s only one way to beat the sniper
– and that’s to become the sniper. The good news, though, is
that once you understand sniping you can use it to win auctions
at a far lower price than you would otherwise.
Manual
Sniping
Manual sniping isn’t that hard, if you have a lot of time
to spare and a reasonably fast Internet connection. Write down
when each auction that are bidding on ends, and then make sure
that you’re sitting there in front of the page for that vital
last minute. You can then outbid the current winning bidder,
or defend your own winning bid.
The only tip you really need to remember for manual sniping
is to make sure that you set your maximum bid quite high –
otherwise you might be automatically outbid, and the auction
will have ended before you can bid again.
Also, it’s not worth your time to compete against someone
who is using an automated sniping service – if it’s any good,
then they will always manage to outbid you. In the sniping
arms race, you need to find a sniper of your own.
Automatic
Sniping
If you type ‘ebay sniping’ into your favourite search engine,
you’ll come up with plenty of online services that will snipe
on your behalf for a small fee. They usually let you have a
free trial, so give it a go.
If you don’t want to pay each time for an online service,
then you might be better off getting a piece of software like
iSnipeIt (www.isnipeit.com) or SnipeRight (www.sniperight.com).
You can pay for these once and use them for as long as you
want. Once you’ve installed the software on your computer,
you tell it which auctions you want sniped and the maximum
amount you’re willing to pay. The software will then place
the bid with only a few seconds left. The only disadvantage
is that you need to be able to leave your computer on nearly
all the time, or you might miss the end of some auctions.
A
Sniping Alternative If this all sounds a bit too much like playing dirty for you,
then is another, more low-tech way to get around sniping. You
can just email the seller and say that you were sniped at the
last minute but would really like the item. If they have another
to sell, the chances are they’ll agree to sell it to you for
the price the auction closed at.
# # # # # SolveYourProblem.com : 2007
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